


Rites of Spring

by Marta



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Character Study, Ficlet, Gen, Seasonal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-12
Updated: 2008-07-11
Packaged: 2017-10-17 03:19:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marta/pseuds/Marta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Lucy Pevensie, spring always brings some not-so-pleasant thoughts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Celandine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celandine/gifts).



Spring in Narnia is a wondrous affair, for the most part. Even Susan, so often rational, marvels at the trees blooming in their splendid colors. For Lucy, though, spring is too often shorn of gladness. That in itself seems unnatural: Susan is always has always been the protector, as the older sister should be, and Lucy the innocent one. Yet spring's awakening turns Lucy's world topsy-turvy, so perhaps it is fitting after all. 

The melting snow and heavy spring rains turn the ground soft, and she cannot help but be reminded of Tumnus, frozen in death (so she thought) before the White Witch's fortress. When Aslan breathed life into him and the others, and woke them, the melted ice had covered the path in a gritty sludge. Lucy cannot help but remember, when the spring's warmth turns other paths muddy.

Part of her longs to travel to that fortress, to see the road once more, yet deep in her heart Lucy knows the truth, and it pains her. For Lucy is a healer; she has saved as many of the dying as she could, but no one could save all. If that road is slick with mud, it will be the ordinary kind, water and soil, not ice melted away from those she thought had died.

So for Susan, spring is a joyous time, full of fresh beginnings; but Lucy sees those new flowers, and the animals roused from their winter slumbers, and thinks of those she could not save.


	2. Notes

I fully acknowledge that this ficlet is may be considered A.U., if not to the particulars of _Narnia_  canon, then to Lewis's deeper themes of life, death and resurrection. In this story I chose to use Lewis's creation as a springboard, not to explore his own themes, but to investigate my own. Namely, what is the price to Lucy of being able to heal anyone, but (because she only has so much cordial) not being able to heal  _every_ one?

This ficlet is entirely movieverse (as I have not read most of the  _Narnia_  books), and is set at the end of LWW, in the years that Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy spend in Narnia after the battle but before returning to Earth.


End file.
